Sunny Saturday News

1 hour ago
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Celebrating the start of the weekend with a global round up of positive news nuggets.

Waterside mural of a woman's face beside Alberta's Cline River — Credit: David Popa

Ephemeral Art

Earth is the canvas for artist David Popa. His oeuvre centers on a unique collaboration with the land, creating massive murals on the likes of a pristine sandbank in Norway, hardened lava in Iceland, and a protruding rock in Finland. The work in the photo above was created in Alberta's Cline River Canyon. The powerful imagery, often figurative, remains only until the land reclaims it. His work confronts the uncomfortable truth that it will most certainly disappear, adding a sense of preciousness to every in-person viewing. Once the mural has vanished, it lives on as photographs and videos. Follow David Popa on Instagram.

California condor in flight — One of the birds, known as Hlow Hoo-let, which means 'At last I (or we) fly' | Yukon Tribe / Facebook

First in a Century

Wildlife biologists in far Northern California are beaming with cautious pride, as a pair of California condors appears to be tending to the region’s first wild egg in more than a century. Scientists haven’t been able to confirm the egg, but the behaviour of the bird couple suggests they’re taking turns with incubation duties - a welcome bright spot for the critically endangered creatures. California condors are the largest land birds in North America, with wingspans up to about 10 feet. They’ve successfully nested and raised chicks in the wild in other parts of California since conservation efforts began in the 1980s. But this nest is likely the first in modern history in the far northern part of the state, where scientists only recently started releasing captive-bred birds into the wild.

London underground train at Camden Town station — Soon to be sola powered

Solar Tube

London's tube trains will soon be part-run by solar power - and no, this isn't an early April Fools'. Transport for London (TfL) is the largest single electricity consumer in London, using the equivalent to the electricity consumed by around 600,000 homes. As part of an ongoing bid to be using 100 percent renewably-sourced electricity by 2030, TfL has announced it will acquire annually 65,000 megawatt hours of renewable electricity (that's around two-thirds of the annual consumption of the Victoria line) from solar energy. It will harvest the energy from newly-installed solar farms, 'wiring' it straight to the TfL network, and therefore bypassing the National Grid. TfL says it will continue to work to identify more suitable locations to build the required solar installations.

Art Deco: London Underground 'Golden Age' Posters on Show. The posters were created in distinctive Art Deco style at the peak of the design movement and were put up at tube stations a century ago to encourage people to travel on the network to explore the city. Take a look...

Legal Targets

The Scottish Parliament has passed the Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill, putting nature recovery on a legal footing for the first time by requiring statutory targets to enhance biodiversity. This follows a new law designed to reverse the loss of wildlife and better protect nature in Wales that has just passed.

Human hand moving a clock hand to a new time — One last clock change

B.C. Last Clock Change

British Columbians will change their clocks for the last time tomorrow. B.C. is permanently adopting daylight time, making its "spring forward" the last time change. "We are done waiting. British Columbia is going to change our clocks just one more time - and then never again," , Premier David Eby said. Residents will have eight months to prepare for November 1st when the clocks would have been turned back one hour, but will now remain the same. The Canadian province's new time zone will be called "Pacific time."

Prostate Cancer

A new immunotherapy drug for treating prostate cancer has shown “remarkable” results in an early clinical trial. The VIR-5500 drug was given to 58 patients with advanced prostate cancer that had stopped responding to other treatments. Almost half saw their tumour shrink after taking the drug, according to the UK’s Institute of Cancer Research, which led the research. Most patients had only mild side-effects. “It’s encouraging to see this innovative approach showing promising effects in early clinical studies,” says the Institute of Cancer Research.

“To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.” Audrey Hepburn

On This Day

Alexander Graham Bell making the first phone call

7 March 1876: Alexander Graham Bell receives a patent for the telephone in the US. Just three days later, on 10 March 1876, Bell made the first successful telephone call to his assistant, Thomas Watson.